Cistercian antiphoner

Ridgefield Fragments Project, Group I

F-jb34

Ridgefield, CT, Private collection

General Information

Title Cistercian antiphoner
Material Parchment
Place of Origin France or Belgium
Script, Hands

Late praegothica/early gothic, with curved feet, occasional S and T ligatures (even when the letters are physically separated, the curve is present.) I may be long or short.

General Remarks

This reconstructed parchment leaf contains several fragments that are part of a series of musical binding materials ("The Ridgefield Project"). The parchment was used to bind volumes of the "Histoire Ecclésiastique pour servir de continuation à celle de Monsieur l'Abbé Fleury" (Paris, Pierre-Jean Mariette, 1722-1738). As a result, the pages (which likely originally measured some 400 x 300 mm) are now cut into several possible shapes. “Ladder pieces” are roughly 200 mm by 75 mm, with 4 “slats” (approximately 50 mm wide and 12.5 mm tall) removed at regular intervals of approximately 30 mm. “Head” and “tail” pieces, extracted from the top or bottom of the spine, are typically rectangular or square, and approximately 75 mm on each side. A few smaller pieces, no more than 50 mm square, are taken from the middle of the spine.

The parchment pieces found in the Ridgefield Project appear to be from a thirteenth-century antiphoner and gradual, both from an (as yet unidentified) Cistercian monastery, possibly in France or Belgium.

This small fragment, composed of 3 “head/tail” pieces ("Group I”) from Volumes 31 and 32 of the Histoire (1732/1733), is from the antiphoner, and contains chants for the Sunday in the Octave of Christmas.

Original Condition

Page Height at least 400 mm
Page Width at least 300 mm
Number of Columns 1

Book Decoration and Musical Notation

  • Musical Notation

    Square notation on a grey/black, four-line staff. Most notes have a rightward lean, with a stem poking up on the upper right of the note. Scandicus sometimes stacked four high. Climacus sometimes has a stem on the right.  B flat present, with a fork in the stem.

    Connected neumes often have a somewhat curved oblique stroke, with varying thickness.

    Staff height between 12.5 and 14.5 mm.

  • Host Volume

    Title Histoire Ecclesiastique pour servir de continuation à celle de Monsieur l'Abbé Fleury (Vols. 31, 32)
    Date of Origin/Publication 1732-1733
    Place of Origin/Publication Pierre-Jean Mariette, Paris